i18n locale fill (release time)

Contributors add ENGLISH only; the maintainer fills every locale at release. This skill is that fill workflow. The release-tier gate (I18N_RELEASE_TIER=1, automatic on release/** branches) hard-fails on any pending registry row, so a release is not shippable until the fill lands.

1. Generate the worklist

npm run i18n:gen        # refresh the registry first
npm run i18n:worklist   # writes one batch per language under docs/i18n-scaling/worklist/ (gitignored)

scripts/i18n_fill_worklist.mjs is data-only (no translation): each batch entry carries { scope, key, english, placeholders, siblings }.

• main-scope keys are filled in the matching src/ui/i18n.locales/<lang>.ts overlay.
• sim / server / admin scope keys are filled in their matcher DICTs (the worklist header in scripts/i18n_fill_worklist.mjs names the exact files).
• humanRequired entries are blocked by default (quest narratives, names, lore, SEO copy): never machine-fill them; only autoFillable entries are fair game for a model pass.

Batches are per-language and independent: fan out one fill agent per language when the volume is large, then regenerate once at the end.

2. The fill contract

• Translate, never transplant. The registry counts PRESENCE, not language: pasting the English value into an overlay marks the row filled and silently ships English. Do not.
• Placeholder parity. Every {token} in the English value must appear verbatim in the fill (the worklist lists them). The scanner checks parity; a dropped token is a break.
• Locked terminology. Classic-MMO terms per locale live in scripts/i18n_glossary.json and are locked; follow them, and extend the glossary when a new recurring term appears.
• Matcher DICT values must be literal string copies. Never alias or share a reference between DICT rows; the matcher relies on per-row literals.
• Native punctuation in overlays is legitimate. Russian and other locales use real em dashes; NEVER strip them. The repo copy scans deliberately exclude src/ui/i18n.locales.
• The placeholder guard flags a bare "todo" value, which is also a real word in es/pt. Phrase such fills differently (for example "por hacer") so the guard does not trip.

3. Regenerate, verify

1. npm run i18n:gen regenerates the resolved bundles and the status registry.
2. Biome-format every overlay file the fill touched in the same change: npx @biomejs/biome check --write src/ui/i18n.locales/<touched>.ts .... CJK and other wide-glyph fills blow the 100-column lineWidth silently (the line LOOKS short in an editor but is over by bytes), and the changed-files biome gate then fails a later round on a format diff you never saw (it cost the phase 13 closing gate its first round). Note biome SIZE-SKIPS files over 1.0 MiB (ru_RU is there already): gate green is not format evidence for those, and that is a known accepted state, not something to fix.
3. Stage the regenerated artifacts in the SAME commit as the fills. The freshness gate diffs the regenerated output against the staged/committed copies; unstaged artifacts fail it.
4. Prove completion: run the i18n steps release-tier, I18N_RELEASE_TIER=1 npm run gate (or at minimum i18n:gen + the guard tests), and confirm zero pending rows remain.

4. Reword staleness (the silent trap)

Rewording an EXISTING English value does not mark its translations pending: every locale silently keeps the old meaning. After any English copy change, diff the resolved en output between the base branch and HEAD and re-fill the touched keys in the same change.